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Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (Discussed Within Article):
Summary:
In the aftermath of the mass college shooting in Oregon earlier this month, many politicians have contested that resolving gun violence lies in improving mental healthcare. While improving mental care is necessary, mental illness's relation to gun violence in the media is more often than not misleading. In a study conducted by Vanderbilt University, approximately 5% of gun violence is committed by those with mental illness. In fact, the mentally ill are 60-120% more likely to be the victims of gun violence than the average person. Still, something must be done about mental healthcare. About 10 million Americans suffer from serious psychiatric conditions, and not all are receiving adequate care. About 2 million mentally ill people go to jail per year, 10 times more than within state-funded psychiatric treatment. Thankfully, there are programs out there than can help these people. Programs such as Assertive Community Treatment have had astounding effects on helping the mentally ill, yet are threatened by funding cuts. Improving mental healthcare is important, but it should not be related to ending gun violence.
Questions:
Do you think that those of mental illness should be entitled to mental healthcare, even if their condition is not serious? Do you think that the task of aiding the mentally ill should fall to the national government, state governments, or local governments which includes programs such as Assertive Community Treatment? Is the media to blame for mental illness's association with gun violence?
I think that those with mental illnesses should be given more opportunitites for help and treatment. Many times, there are not enough resources for those with mental illnesses to get the help they need, and we need to change this. I am unsure of whether this means those with mental illnesses are automatically given healthcare, but I do think that it should be easier for these people to get the help they need no matter how serious. I think that aiding the mentally ill should fall to the state governments, who are in charge of providing for the general welfare of their citizens. Although it is a national issue, it is very unlikely that a national healthcare bill that provides healthcare universally to people will pass (per Congress' track record) so I believe that it would most effective and prosperous for the state governments to tackle the issue. I think that the media is at fault for society's association of people with mental illnesses to gun violence, but it is also just our innate perceptions of those people with mental illnesses to be crazy and outwardly violent, a stereotype that the media definitely perpetuates. However, it is not the only cause of that stigma. To fix this, it needs to start with the youths and build its way up in society, a very difficult task to do, but will be propelled if the media (and politicians) stopped focusing on stereotypes and began focusing on the real causes of tragedies such as these.
ReplyDeleteI believe that those with mental illness should be entitled to mental healthcare, no matter the degree of their illness. If the state government were to tackle this major issue, it would be most effective. State governments would be more able to implement change and altogether be more effective. I think the media is a large factor to why people immediately think of the mentally unstable when gun violence is mentioned. The stat from the article saying that only 5% of gun violence was committed by the mentally ill was alarming. The way gun tragedies traditionally have been spoken about in media almost always allude to the perpetrator being mentally ill, which isn't necessarily always true.
ReplyDeleteWow! If there are two million mentally ill people in jail & 2.2 million people in our total jail population, then pretty much all those incarcerated are mentally ill. There are definitely issues related to the dismantling of the public mental health system. Where should we invest- prevention (treatment) or punishment (prisons)?
ReplyDeleteMental illness patients should be entitled to mental healthcare because without it, they cannot be held responsible for any violent or illegal crimes they commit. Also, just as mentally stable people have access to health care, as should the mentally ill. This responsibility falls to the government under the elastic clause, because it is necessary for the health of people. Although the government should be enacting this treatment, I believe that it would work best at a local level, that way each patient would have a more personalized and accurate treatment, resulting in more positive results.
ReplyDeleteThose with mild cases of mental illnesses are difficult to detect. However, if there is a way to ethically detect mental illnesses, then there should be a program that helps them. However, creating this program will not help to significantly decrease gun violence. Gun violence happens, but it is not a major problem. I believe that prevention starts in schools. If gun control is taught in schools, students will learn about the weapon. Society is extremely sensitive about guns and people never think about teaching students about guns. I believe that the most effective way to decrease gun violence is education through schools. Supporting mentally ill people will not solve the problem with gun violence.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there is a high amount of mentally ill in prison, there is not that many in prison. When I looked it up it was not 2 million, rather about 350000. Addressing the issue on mental illness, there does need to be further treatment and rehabilitation. They are not given the resources necessary to be functioning individuals of society. Due to the poor care, many do become criminals and or fail in life. However, this is an extreme view. Not all mentally ill are inherently bad or poor members of society. They are just people. I feel that the media gives them a negative view and only highlights the bad things that they have done. The media does make gun violence seem to all be mentally ill people. This is not the case, and it is putting fear in people that is wrong. People need to be educated further and the mentally ill need the support they need.
ReplyDeleteWith recent news of massacures with guns being handled by mentlly ill people is sickening. While i agree that it is hard to knnow wether a person id mentally ill or not, we shoudl restrict gun purcheses to be even harder to buy guns in this contries. Making sure that this never happens again is almost impossible but we can do something to make sure that it happens less and less each year until it is either very rare or not exsisit at all. While these peoplpe should get help, supporting them will not help the gun argument that is going on today in the United States.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people in the US have some sort of mental illness, some more severe than others, which makes it difficult to detect and treat. If mental health care was more available to everyone, it would definitely help, but not solve, the gun control issue. The federal government should not only regulate guns, but also provide national mental health care in order to help prevent shootings.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people in the US have some sort of mental illness, some more severe than others, which makes it difficult to detect and treat. If mental health care was more available to everyone, it would definitely help, but not solve, the gun control issue. The federal government should not only regulate guns, but also provide national mental health care in order to help prevent shootings.
ReplyDeleteI believe that yes, even people with mental illnesses that are not severe should be entitled to mental health care and treatment. The opportunity to recieve mental health care should not rely on the severity of the the mental illness. This is like saying that people only in severe accidents or have life threatening diseases should recieve medical care or hopsitilization. In my opinion, the national government or states should help provide people with mental health care, but not local communities. If it relied on the local communities fuding, then there would be great discrepancies between rich and poor communities, and this should not determine the qualityof care that they recieve. I do believe that the media is in part to blame for the correlation between mental illness and gun violence. You can often hear people says things about the media like "doom and gloom" or "if it bleeds it leads". They rely on interetsing or shocking stories to tell their audiences to keep their attention and keep them watching. Someone who caused gun violence that had a mental illness is more interesting than some one without mental illness. This is why there is such a connection between mental illness and gun violence.
ReplyDeleteThe conversation on gun control should not always invite a conversation on mental illness. It seems that the only time the media does talk about the lack of healthcare available for the mentally ill occurs after a national tragedy. This will only feed on the stigma that the mentally ill are the cause of most of gun related violence.
ReplyDeleteThe task to provide aid for the mentally ill does not have to entirely lie on the government. However, the government needs to take on a more active role in providing the necessary care. Afterall, one of the most integral duties of the government is to ensure the general welfare of all of its civilians. If, like the article says, "10 million Americans suffer from serious psychiatric conditions", then the health care would be supporting a large group of Americans. This is the more reason to make mental ill aid available for all those need it.
Those with mental illnesses need to be awarded with more healthcare. They have more needs, and therefore, need more services. The degree of extra healthcare should correlate with the severity of the condition the person has. The task of awarding extra health care should fall to the federal government. To insure that every person with mental illnesses is getting the correct amount of healthcare, in any state, the issue needs to rest with the federal government. The media is slightly to blame for the associating of mental illness and gun violence. Honestly, I think people are really just trying to find some reason as for why all of the violence is occurring and a logical explanation is that the people who are creating all of this violence, are not mentally sane.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that people with mental illnesses should be entitled to more mental illness services. I think the state governments should have the task of aiding the mentally ill because it would the most effective. The state governments would be able to implement a stronger standard and programs for mental illness. I do believe the media is to blame for this association because every news story has connected mental illness to gun violence.
ReplyDeletePeople have mental illness no matter how serious it is should get treatment because even the patient is in stable condition, it could turn bad at anytime. Mental illness could change at anytime when patient's life changes. To prevent that, every mental illness patient should get treatment. I think national government and local communities should have mental care programs for people have mental illness. Mental illness is not directly cause of gun violence, but it is a factor that should be checked when people are buying guns. People with mental illness could not cause any gun violence unless they have a gun in their hand. The problem of gun violence is not mental illness, it is who should we give the access of guns.
ReplyDeleteMental illness is a huge problem in the United States and should be focused on more that gun control laws. Individuals who have mental illnesses do not have the opportunity to get help to overall better their situation. Even though I believe we must assess this problem, I believe that it is the state's responsibility not our national government's responsibility to implement the solution. The 9th and 10th amendment allows states to make its own laws that are not stated in the Bill of Rights or the Amendments. Giving power to the states gives more rights to the people. The media outlets reports information that supports their beliefs on issues which has caused misunderstanding the real issues in hand.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the mentally ill should be entitled to mental healthcare no matter what level of severity. The treatment and awareness of mental illness in this country is very poor and many go without treatment which has serious consequences for not only the individual, but the community. I think that the state governments should be in charge of aiding the mentally ill with care because this would allow them to have a more organized program that could be implemented efficiently.
ReplyDeleteI believe that individuals with mental illnesses should be given more health services and benefits. Furthermore, I believe that anyone with a mental illness, whether it be a minor or fully developed condition, be treated. These services should be aided by the state government because their support would be the most effective. In addition, state governments would create a more regulated program based off of solid standards. I do believe that the media plays a role in prompting people to associate mental illnesses with gun violence because most crime television shows and even news stories make that connection.
ReplyDeleteI believe that all individuals with any mental illness are entitled to health services and care. The state government should aid the mentally ill because it is their duty to take care of the general welfare of the citizens. The media stresses the fact that most violent acts are caused by mentally ill people, and while that is partially true, it is giving a bad stigma to all mentally ill people that don't mean any harm.
ReplyDeleteI do think that those with mental illnesses afforded mental health treatment. But lets be realistic here, we don't even have a real working universal health care system yet, and we're talking about mental health entitlements? As it stands, if we can't treat little 6 year old Johnny with cancer, we surely can't treat 70 year old Bob with early onset dementia.
ReplyDeleteIn our perfect hypothetical world, mental health (or at least oversight) would fall under the national government to ensure that everyone has the same quality of treatment no matter where they live.